India has got people scared.

[Workingman]

If what is happening there migrates to neighbouring densely populated countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh we are looking at nearly one fifth of the world's population under extreme pressure from Covid. Add in the USA, Brazil and Mexico, all with huge death counts, and that makes one in three of us.

We might think that we have cracked it here in the UK, but in the big wide world new cases and deaths are on the rise again. This global third wave has all the indications that it will be worse than the second.

[Suff]

For India this is the second wave and most of us have already seen it.

The big issue for India is that the first wave was so benign that corruption took away the initiatives that the government put in place to ensure there was enough oxygen and other supplies for a second wave.

Numbers in India are also an issue. One Crem stated that they had recorded 110 cremations in a day and the government posted 10 deaths. Which would make India something like 20,000 dead per day, not 2,000 something.

That being said, all of these scare stories came to nothing. Kent variant, South African variant, Brazilian variant, in the end the vaccines all worked and they were stopped. Lethality was no higher and greater transmission hit reduced transmission with the vaccine.

So let's stop the fear thing. Get everyone vaccinated then start recording and see just how effective the vaccines are against these new strains. Because, so far, all the fearmongering has come to nothing and the more this goes on the less people will believe and the less they believe the less compliant they will be.

There is a way out of this, it comes on the back of a successful vaccination rollout. Something we are excelling at. We don't need to import others fears because they couldn't organise an orgy in a free to use whore house.

[Workingman]

It was not an attempt at scaremongering I was simply pointing out that world leaders, including the UK, and some big business leaders, Amazon and Google, find the situation in India a cause for concern and are offering help. That, surely, is the proper way to react?

Nationalistic tub thumping, and 'we are all right Jack' attitudes have no place to play in this pandemic.

[Suff]

Of course it is a cause for concern. I was just reiterating that the press scaremongering, also the SAGE scaremongering, over variants simply came to nothing.

At least we are helping and the US has crawled out of its shell.

I have a lot of friends in India and I seriously feel for them. But we just need to focus on the vaccinations, getting ourselves clear and then we can, perhaps, help a hell of a lot more.

[Kaz]

Well the Indian government are clearly scared as today they blocked off internet access in Bangalore, probably trying to stop stories about Covid deaths getting out. Mick was pinged by BT India about it, but there was nothing he could do about it, it's down to their government

[Workingman]

It is rather strange.

In the space of a day India has gone from being the top 'World' story to nothing. Only the other day we had stories of the death count being underestimated by a factor of three, the Ganges flowing with bodies and Mumbai building giant Covid centres - now not a peep.

[Kaz]

Yep

[Suff]

I guess it is a choice, go for responsible government, or go for a head fully inserted in the sand.